Table Of ContentHOW WE THINK
A RESTATEMENT OF THE RELATION
OF REFLECTIVE THINKING TO
THE EDUCATIVE PROCESS
BY
JOHN DEWEY
HENRY REGNERY COMPANY • CHICAGO
A Gateway Edition
Copyright © 1933 by John Dewey
All rights reserved
Gateway Edition published by Henry Regnery Company
114 West Illinois Street, Chicago, Illinois 60610
by arangement with D. C. Heath and Company
Manufactured in the United States of America
First Gateway Edition, 1971
PKEFACE TO THE NEW EDITION
To say that a text is 1 revised ’ may signify slight verbal
changes or an extensive rewriting. The new edition of How
We Think, which is presented herewith, is a revision of the
latter sort. It is, as its subtitle indicates, a ‘ restatement ’ of
How We Think.
In the first place, although some material found in the
original edition has been excised, there has been consider¬
able expansion. The present book contains nearly a quarter
more than did the older account.
In the second place, the revision has been made with a
view to increased definiteness and clearness of statement.
Scrupulous pains have been taken to restate all ideas that
were found by teachers to give undue trouble in understand¬
ing. The changes in this respect apply both to matters of
phrasing, where a multitude of minor alterations have been
made in the interests of greater sureness of comprehension,
and also to the development of major ideas. The latter
changes are most numerous and complete in Part II, the
theoretical section of the book. There the whole logical
analysis of reflection has been rewritten and, it is believed,
very considerably simplified in statement. At the same time,
the basic ideas, those that gave the original work its dis¬
tinctive character, have not only been retained but have
also been enriched and developed further. In the interests
of clearness more illustrative material has been added, and
some rearrangement of the position of entire chapters has
been made.
In the third place, changes will be evident in the parts
devoted to teaching. These changes reflect the large changes
that have taken place in schools, especially in the manage-
iv PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION
ment of teaching and studying, since 1910, when the book
first appeared. Some methods that were criticized because
of their currency at that time have now practically disap¬
peared from the better schools. New topics have come to the
fore. Adjustments have accordingly been made in the text;
for example, the present chapter on “ The Recitation ” is
practically all new.
In conclusion, it is a great pleasure to express my thanks
to the many teachers whose experience in using the older
book has been freely put at my disposal in preparing the
new and, I venture to hope, improved version.
John Dewey
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
Our schools are troubled with a multiplication of studies,
each in turn having its own multiplication of materials and
principles. Our teachers find their tasks made heavier in
that they have come to deal with pupils individually and
not merely in mass. Unless these steps in advance are to
end in distraction, some clew of unity, some principle that
makes for simplification, must be found. This book repre¬
sents the conviction that the needed steadying and centraliz¬
ing factor is found in adopting as the end of endeavor that
attitude of mind, that habit of thought, which we call sci¬
entific. This scientific attitude of mind might, conceivably,
be quite irrelevant to teaching children and youth. But this
book also represents the conviction that such is not the
case; that the native and unspoiled attitude of childhood,
marked by ardent curiosity, fertile imagination, and love of
experimental inquiry, is near, very near, to the attitude of
the scientific mind. If these pages assist any to appreciate
this kinship and to consider seriously how its recognition in
educational practice would make for individual happiness
and the reduction of social waste, the book will amply have
served its purpose.
It is hardly necessary to enumerate the authors to whom
I am indebted. My fundamental indebtedness is to my
wife, by whom the ideas of this book were inspired, and
through whose work in connection with the Laboratory
School, existing in Chicago between 1896 and 1903, the ideas
attained such concreteness as comes from embodiment and
testing in practice. It is a pleasure, also, to acknowledge in¬
debtedness to the intelligence and sympathy of those who
cooperated as teachers and supervisors in the conduct of
vi PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
that school, and especially to Mrs. Ella Flagg Young, then
a colleague in the University, and now Superintendent of
the Schools of Chicago.
John Dewey
